State Alchemist

I know Henman never to to the final, but it ain't necessarily so that getting into a final makes you a better player. Henman did always seem to choke at Wimbledon but he wasn't a bad player. If Murray was being absolutely thrashed by Federer then getting into the final would have been a negligible achievement. As it stands, he's managing to hold his own and his performance so far has been very good.

It's not the winning or the taking part that matters, I don't think, it's putting up a good fight.

Akatsuki

State Alchemist

I don't get why people feel the need to link a sports-person's (or anyone's, for that matter) behaviour or personality with their performance in their chosen field. Even then I can't think of anything Andy Murray has ever done to provoke anyone's ire other than have a slightly less extroverted personality than other top tennis players.

And yeah, I know about the alleged anti-English comments. The guy's a Scot. Things he says jokingly are going to get taken seriously, that's just what happens with dry humour. And even if he was serious (which he denies) his politics are his own and have no bearing on his performance on court.

Akatsuki

I don't get why people feel the need to link a sports-person's (or anyone's, for that matter) behaviour or personality with their performance in their chosen field. Even then I can't think of anything Andy Murray has ever done to provoke anyone's ire other than have a slightly less extroverted personality than other top tennis players.

And yeah, I know about the alleged anti-English comments. The guy's a Scot. Things he says jokingly are going to get taken seriously, that's just what happens with dry humour. And even if he was serious (which he denies) his politics are his own and have no bearing on his performance on court.

Can't remember which tournament it was, but Murray once said he hoped the England football team would lose all their matches. He wasn't joking about it because he later apologized - if he was joking he wouldn't have needed to apologize.

Thousand Master

Would you honestly expect him to say otherwise? I certainly wouldn't have expected Henman, for example, to have said he hopes Scotland does really well. Also, need we point out the fact that the media hail him as British when he wins but Scottish the moment he falters.

Personally though, I'll admit I don't care for his attitude either. Today was a perfect example, as soon as Murray was behind he spent all his energy in his frustration and complaining whereas when Federer lost the 1st set he remained calm and got on with it, class act. Murray is too childish, he's a good player on his day but needs to grow up.

State Alchemist

Would you honestly expect him to say otherwise? I certainly wouldn't have expected Henman, for example, to have said he hopes Scotland does really well...

Personally though, I'll admit I don't care for his attitude either. Today was a perfect example, as soon as Murray was behind he spent all his energy in his frustration and complaining whereas when Federer lost the 1st set he remained calm and got on with it, class act. Murray is too childish, he's a good player on his day but needs to grow up.

Well exactly. So it's not really that people dislike him for his opinions or his performance, but because of his attitude/personality which seems pretty petty to me. Some people are easy-going and some people are more tightly wound. For all we know Federer could be a mass of rage inside, but as long as he doesn't show it outwardly he would still somehow be better? By all means criticise him for his tennis when that's poor, but to criticise him for anything else is to partake in this horrible media driven invitation to judge anybody in the public eye for anything and everything they do. Gary Glitter's a paedophile, that doesn't make his music worse.

Stand User

Murray apologized for the "anti-English" comments because tabloids were making a huge fuss over them - despite the fact that he made the comments in a light-hearted interview after being ribbed about Scotland being absent from the tournament they were discussing.

I think Murray's attitude was pretty good today - when Federer is in that form and you don't have the ability to take back the momentum, you're bound to get frustrated. He's still got room for improvement in terms of his overall game before he can truly challenge the top 3 players in Grand Slams on a regular basis.

To be honest, he can be as surly and unreceptive to the media as he likes, I'll keep supporting him and hoping that he'll one day grab a Grand Slam title.

Thousand Master

By all means criticise him for his tennis when that's poor, but to criticise him for anything else is to partake in this horrible media driven invitation to judge anybody in the public eye for anything and everything they do.

While I can understand your point, I think it'd be a little dull if we all just liked people based on skills. The fact is that these are real people too with real personalities, and much like any other normal person, we're entitled to have a like or dislike for them based on these personalities. Cristiano Ronaldo is a brilliant footballer, but he's an absolute prima donna (apparently had a haircut at half time in the Spain game) and I don't like that about him, Tom Cruise is a good actor but I have just never taken to him. How these people act is as much a reflection of themselves as how talented they are in their own profession.

State Alchemist

When we're talking about people we actually know, then yeah. Obviously their attitude and personality is going to have a bearing on whether you'd want to associate with them or not. I try not to judge anyone I don't know in person based on these things though, because I don't know them as a person, can't get a full impression of them and will likely never spend any amount of time with them. If I know of them, then I know them as perhaps an actor, an athlete or a politician - so I judge them on their acting ability, their sporting performance and their politics respectively. I couldn't care less about a actor's politics any more than I could about a politician's athleticism. I guess that's what the media does, makes people feel like they know celebrities to the point where their opinion of them actually matters. It really doesn't. People don't care about the attitude of the bloke three doors down the street unless he happens to inflict his bad attitude upon you. We choose to inflict the personal lives of celebrities on ourselves by reading about them in the press.

State Alchemist

Jessica Ennis and her wonder abs delivered spectacularly, a mini-shock gold in the Long Jump for Greg Rutherford, and MA BOY Mo Farah took the 10k with a near perfect run. If Louis Smith can nail his stuff tomorrow, what a weekend that would make!